My $33 cupcake party for 30 people

As I've mentioned before, I had a surprise party last week. I heard about someone leaving and thought it might be a nice idea to throw a small surprise farewell. Nothing elaborate with lots of food & drink. I just settled for cupcakes, fresh fruit (since this person loves fruit) and drinks. I could've gone the whole nine yards, but there wasn't enough notice. 

My first stop was at Dollar Tree for some supplies (plates, serving trays, balloon, card)

OOP $10.07

Then I went to Meijer for fruit. I also bought 3 packs of juice boxes for the kids. I cashed in pop cans to the tune of $7.70 and used a $3 Mperks reward only paid $23 OOP. I actually bought way too much fruit. We only needed half, so the rest was eaten and also frozen.

Then at Sams I picked up 60 cupcakes. They sell 30ct cupcakes for $14.99. There were only ones with Happy Birthday decorations, so these were the best I could find. I actually like the ice cream decorations. Paid with a Walmart gc, so zero OOP

Then I grabbed 2 x $15 Red Robin gcs (the ones I bought at Sams before) and placed it inside the 50c Hallmark card that I bought at Dollar Tree. So that was the person's gc.

I also had lots of 2 Litre Canada Dry Lemonade (that we got for free or near free through Ibotta before) for the adults. 

So total OOP was $33.07 and everyone had enough to eat. I was so worried that it might not be enough food, but it was definitely enough.

I actually enjoyed planning this simple party, because I spent so little and everyone had a good time. 

Some shopping deals

I'm still here. Between a funeral, some personal business, a spur of the moment surprise party, summer & work, I've been really busy. I will try my best to write 2-3 blog posts per week. No promises though, because from now until the end of January, I'll be very busy with work.

Here are just a few deals I did today.

This week Meijer has select GM cereals on sale for $2.50 and wyb 4, you save $4 instantly. There's also a CAT deal wyb 4, you earn $3 OYNO. So here's what I got

4 x Cheerios $10.00
Less instant discount (4.00)
Less 2 x $1/2 qs (2.00)
OOP $4.00
Received $3 CAT and $1 Savingstar. So 4 free boxes of cereal.

I will print more qs from DH & DS's computers and do the deal a few more times. Since the Savingstar offer has already been redeemed, the cereal will cost 25c each.

Walgreens (WAGS)

2 x Poise Liners $11.98
2 x Benadryl itch relief sticks $5.23 (B1G50% off 2nd)
Less L2C Poise (3.0)
Less Poise Monthly booklet q (2.00)
Less 2 Benadryl qs (2.00)
Less $10 Reward used (10.00)
Sales tax 1.03
OOP $1.24

Received $4 Ibotta poise and a free photobook CAT (wyb 2 Benadryl)

Earned $3 reward (wyb 2 Benadryl)

So, I only bought these items, because I read that the Poise is a big MM. I still don't understand how it's a MM (unless there's another Man q available). I have to go find that post again, to check the details. Since I only paid $1.24 OOP and earned $4 cash back, I guess it's a MM deal for me :)

I started off with $50 in Balance rewards and I still have $50 available after today's trip. I'm not even gonna mess with the points, because it's too much of a mess to work through. I still don't understand it. I do have less points than before, but I still end up with the same Dollar amount. Huh?! (scratching head...lol)

I also placed an online Target order. Ibotta currently has a $5 bonus reward when you place one mobile order. The Target men's beauty box is currently $5 with free shipping (includes samples and 1 full size Old Spice item). So I paid $5.30 with a gc, earned a whopping 5c cash back (it's still money in my pocket) and should get $5 bonus through Ibotta. So total cost will be 25c for the box, but that was covered by a gc, so free to me. Yay!

I also stopped at Dollar Tree for bread, but they only had some horrible white dinner rolls and english muffins. I don't eat white bread and none of us care for English muffins. I did pick up a few other items, but left everything behind because the checkout line was so long with only one register open. Meanwhile, they had staff stocking shelves all over the store. I'll make another trip on Thursday (cashier told me they get bread on Tuesday and Thursday).

I was also hoping to score some Sunday newspapers at DT, but none of them had any q inserts, so that was a bust.

I will wait until the Poise deal resets on Ibotta, then hit WAGS and Meijer again. I'm mainly interested in those free photobooks. They will make nice Christmas gifts and I don't have to pay that heavy shipping costs that Shutterfly charges.

I also shopped Kohls on Sunday and bought a big ticket Christmas gift and 2 shirts for DS. I had a few more items, but in typical Kohls fashion they were somehow OOS. Paid for everything with gcs (around $90. I need to check the updated total now that some stuff were cancelled) and earned $20 Kohls cash. So Kohls is also on my shopping list this week. I still have $25 Y2Y reward to use before the end of the month.

That's my shopping thus far. I haven't even checked the ads for the other drugstores yet.

June numbers - very late

I know this is wayyyyy late. I've been in holiday mode since the end of June. I've been lazing by the pool, shopping, dining out and just plain doing nothing. It's rare for me to just take time off like this, so I enjoyed it to the fullest. I had absolutely zero interest in writing a blog post, but that's all behind me now...lol. So onto the numbers we go.

It's been a really slow earning month on all point earning sites.Lots of things not working, so the numbers are low. I do,however, remain thankful for the extra cash in my pocket :)

Gift cards earned

Mypoints $0
Swagbucks : $25
IGC : $50 (Kohls, Target) 
Ibotta : $50 Walmart
Savingstar : $0 - not enough funds to cash out yet
Checkout51 - I requested a $20.75 check that will be added to $15K fund
Total gcs earned in January : $180 (excluding CK51) 

So onto the gc balances:

Kohls 
Previous balance $146.57
Added : $25 (Mypoints)
Spent : $106.21 Kohls + $50 Christmas gift transfer
New balance : $15.36

Target 
Previous balance $70
Added : $30 (Swagbucks, Bing) 
Spent : $0 
New balance : $100

Walmart 
Previous balance : $66.44
Added : $100 Ibotta & CC
Spent : $11.26 (Lance crackers)
Total : $155.18

Gap 
Previous balance : $40.27
Added : $0 
Spent : $0
Total : $40.27


Macy's 

Previous balance : $59.31
Earned $0
Spent : 0
New balance : $59.31

DSW - $25.00 + $5 reward

WHBM - $50.00

BBW - 

Previous balance : $15.00
Spent $15.00
Balance : $0 (pending credit which I still haven't received)

Starbucks : $35 

Total Gift Cards : $385.12

Total earned from online sales (after fees) : $195.33
Plus previous balance $465.57
Less expenses (27.11) $23.15 was for my BBW purchase
New Balance : $633.79

So we have a total of $1018.91 in cash and gcs for holiday shopping and whatever clothing items we need for the rest of the year. 

So, the Kohls number is a little off. I only shopped at Kohls once this month. However, I told my friend I was gonna order a gc through my CC as a Christmas gift. I wasn't sure about redeeming for a small amount, because I would've preferred a larger gc. So my friend told me to just get a gc to use for our household and then take the cash amount out of household (eg groceries) and save it towards a bigger gc. Brilliant idea. Then I thought, why not get a Kohls gc, buy some items to resell and use that money to buy a bigger gc. Even better idea. So off to Kohls I went with $50 gc and bought items to sell (which should bring me about $125). I also earned $10 Kohls cash which I used to buy 3 more items to sell, which should bring even more money. I'm counting on $150 total in my pocket. See how that $50 gc is growing :) BUTTTTTT The day after my Kohls trip I tried to redeem my CC points for a $50 Kohls gc. Except, they didn't have any Kohls gcs available :( So I ordered a Walmart gc instead, cause Walmart is on my shopping list too). 

So long story short. I traded a $50 Kohls for a $50 Walmart card. So these numbers are reflected on my gc amounts above.

$15K savings goal

Starting balance : $844.21
Plus 52 wk plan : $282.16
Plus sales : $181.53
Plus CK51 check : 20.75
Less purchases : $0
New Balance : $1328.65

$1 Savings
Previous balance : $76
Added : $15
Total : $91

$5 Savings 
Previous balance : $155
Added : $25
Total : $180

I sure hope that the point earning sites will pick up soon, because I still need to earn a lot of gcs for BF shopping and it's already the middle of July. Our cash situation is a lot better, so I don't know why I'm so worried. Probably because I feel less guilt when I pay with a gc versus cash. 

So that's our holiday savings/shopping numbers to date. How have you done with saving/shopping for Christmas?

I did quite a bit of drugstore shopping last week, so need to work on that post. I hit all 3 stores last week and stocked up on P&G items.